INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Joe Root got bowled by a peach of a delivery from Akash Deep © Getty
For all the brouhaha and rumpus over the legality of Akash Deep’s delivery that cleaned up Joe Root lock stock and barrel in the just-concluded Edgbaston Test, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the final word on cricket laws, seems to believe that there is nothing wrong with the dismissal.
The hallowed body seems to suggest that the law is where the foot lands. It insists that it has always interpreted this to point out the importance of the very first moment any part of the foot makes contact with the ground. So even if some of the foot subsequently lands over the line, if the first thing to land is inside, it is legal.
Akash Deep clean bowled Root off the second delivery of the tenth over with the veteran English batsman totally bamboozled by an incoming delivery from the Indian pacer. But moments later footage emerged of the bowler’s back foot going wide off the crease leading to some sort of ruckus in a section of the media that it was a backfoot no ball, and therefore illegal.
Some commentators, on air, remarked that it was a no ball and Jonathan Trott, a former England batter, also felt the same when he was commenting during a studio discussion on JioStar. However, Ravi Shastri, on air at that time, was fully convinced that it was a legal delivery. Third umpire Paul Reiffel, who relays information in case of a no ball, did not intervene. Chris Gaffaney and Sharfuddoula Saikat were the on-field umpires.
An MCC spokesperson said: “On Day four of India’s Test against England last week, there were questions raised about the delivery from Akash Deep which bowled Joe Root, with some fans and commentators believing it to be a no ball.
“While Deep landed unusually wide on the crease, and some of his back foot appeared to touch the ground outside the return crease, the third umpire did not call a no ball. MCC is happy to clarify that this was a correct decision in Law.”
The MCC quoted the relevant law, saying Law 21.5.1 states that: “For a delivery to be fair in respect of the feet, in the delivery stride the bowler’s back foot must land within and not touching the return crease appertaining to his/her stated mode of delivery.”
“MCC has always defined the moment that the back foot lands as the first point of contact with the ground. As soon as there is any part of the foot touching the ground, that foot has landed, and it is the foot’s position at that time which is to be considered for a back foot no ball.
“Clearly, at the point Deep’s foot first touched the ground, the back foot was within and not touching the return crease. Some of his foot may have touched the ground outside the crease subsequently – that is not relevant to this Law. At the point of landing he was within the crease, and this was therefore rightly deemed to be a legal delivery,” the MCC clarified the rule, putting the controversy to rest once and for all.
Root’s wicket was a big breakthrough for India and it reduced England, chasing a mammoth 608, to 50 for 3 in the third session of Day 4. They ended the day at 72 for 3. On the final day, the home team folded for 271, handing India a massive 336-run series-equalling victory in the second of the five-Test series.
© Cricbuzz
